It may be time for payback

Outgoing Speaker Bill O'Brien must be working hard to hide his delight as state Democrats start embarrassing themselves before even taking office and control of the New Hampshire House.

First, it was a felon still on probation who may be forced to quit if she doesn't do so voluntarily even before taking the oath. Now, it turns out a Nashua state representative-elect has to call it quits because on election day he was in the process of moving to Florida.

To all this, O'Brien replied in cool fashion, “It doesn't speak well for the Democrats recruiting efforts if they could not identify better candidates for State Representative than convicted felons who have not completed their sentence and people who truly live out of state. These sad episodes paint the entire House in a bad light and demonstrate the need to get back to electing individuals who are committed to serving the people honorably.”

Of course, it could be argued this is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. After all, some of the shenanigans during O'Brien's tenure as Speaker of the House didn't seem all that focused on “serving the people honorably.”

But, O'Brien will soon be history as far as legislative leadership goes, thus the focus will turn to the party which preached purity as it condemned Republicans in wholesale fashion. Unfortunately, voters bought the broad-brush approach and literally swept out the good Republicans with the bad.

The irony, for anyone who doesn't see it clearly, is that in booting the Republicans en masse voters had the wool pulled over their eyes by the state Democratic Party. To read press releases from Chairman Ray Buckley over the past two years one would think the soul of the Republican Party was black as coal, and the Democrats' as white as the driven snow.

Well, neither is the case — as voters are beginning to see. Exactly what that means when it comes time to file nonsensical bills of Democratic making is yet to be seen. But, if the brief glimpse of what the Democratic tsunami brought to Concord is any indication, Speaker-in-Waiting Terie Norelli is going to get a taste of the same medicine her party fed to Republicans for the past two years and perhaps the dessert served up on Nov. 6.

Unfortunately, while that may be politically satisfying retribution it won't do much for state finances and getting the economy back on track.